Stancati allowed to move home

Judge releases former teacher in meth case from halfway house.

SOUTH BEND -- A judge has agreed to modify the sentence of a former Elkhart teacher convicted of making meth, releasing her from a halfway house and placing her on straight probation.

St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jerome Frese acknowledged he was taking a "big bet" by allowing Maria Stancati to move home and be released from daily supervision at Dismas House, a local community corrections facility.

"You're going to be your own check and balance," Frese told Stancati at a hearing Wednesday.

Stancati, wearing a black dress and black leather boots, nodded back.

In November 2008, authorities found a meth lab in Stancati's home, in the 500 block of East Woodside Street in South Bend, which she shared with her twin sister, Michelle.

They were each charged with one count of dealing meth within 1,000 feet of a school, a Class A felony.

At the time, Maria was a teacher at Elkhart Memorial High School. Her sister was a teacher at North Side Middle School.

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Michelle Stancati was sentenced by Frese to 20 years in prison. But Maria, who was said to have been less involved with the meth production, was sentenced to 20 years in prison "as a condition of probation."

That meant Frese could change the terms of Maria's probation at any time, allowing her to be eligible for release whenever Frese saw fit.

And that's what Frese did in August 2010, when he released Maria from prison and placed her on probation at the Dismas House after she served just one year in prison.

Frese's decision on Wednesday was a further modification.

"I gave you an extraordinarily unusual sentence," Frese told Stancati on Wednesday. "I was betting on you, and so far you have proven me right."

But he emphasized the words "so far."

"I'm making another big bet on you that you're not going to go relapsing into old friends and old ways," the judge said.

"Straight probation is not appropriate," McKinney said. "She was convicted of an A (level) felony."

Stancati's probation terms require that she submit to random drug and alcohol tests, report to the Probation Department as instructed by the court or her probation officer, remain in St. Joseph County, and consent to her probation officer visiting her at home or work, among other requirements. She is also forbidden from purchasing any precursors for making meth unless she has a written prescription.

Maria Kaczmarek, executive director of Dismas House, said Stancati has "done an exceptional job" while living there -- obtaining employment, completing substance abuse and mental health programs, and tutoring other offenders.